A Friday Visit With Jim Korkis: The Secrets of Spaceship Earth

By Dave Shute

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE SECRETS OF SPACESHIP EARTH

By Jim Korkis

Spaceship Earth at Epcot was not meant to be a museum, but even so, many of the props and inscriptions are authentic reproductions of the originals.

Imagineer John Hench insisted that the props in the attraction should be the closest approximation that could be created, even though few guests would be knowledgeable enough to know the difference.

Here are a handful of examples to look for on visits to the attraction.

Cro-Magnon Scene: The animal skulls in this scene include a saber-toothed tiger, a lion, a cave bear and two dire wolves. They were cast from molds of actual animals in the Paleolithic collection of the Page Museum in Los Angeles.

Egyptian Scene: The hieroglyphics are accurate and the gods Anubis, Soker, and Thoth are all represented. The translations of the hieroglyphics takes up several pages but are all authentic to the time period.

Roman Scene: The Latin inscription which appears at the entrance to the Roman scene comes from the first of The Twelve Tables of Roman Law that were codified about 451 B.C. and were regarded by later Romans as the foundation of all their laws. The laws were originally written on bronze tablets and placed in the marketplace for all to see and discuss.

The statue in the Roman scene is Augustus. The graffiti which appears on the walls in the “Fall of Rome” also appeared on the walls of ancient Pompeii and was taken from a collection of graffiti entitled “Loves and Lovers of Ancient Pompeii” by Professor Matteo Della Corte.

One example is “Quisquis amat pereat” that translates to “May whoever loves perish!”

Islamic Scene: The astronomer on the balcony holds a quadrant reproduced from photos of a 10th century Islamic quadrant supplied by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Medieval Scene: Mary Robertson, the Curator of Rare Manuscripts of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, was consulted regarding creation of manuscripts during the Middle Ages.

Gutenberg Scene: Carey Bliss, the Curator of Rare Books of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, was consulted regarding the printing of the Gutenberg Bible. In the Spaceship Earth scene, the page Herr Gutenberg is examining was recreated from a page from the actual original Gutenberg Bible in the Huntington Library collection.

Renaissance Music: Experts in the field of Renaissance musicology like Genette Foster from Occidental College in Los Angeles were engaged to consult and perform the music in this scene. The male musician is shown playing the lute and the female musician is playing the lira da braccio.

Steam Press/Newspaper Scene: The steam press which dominates the newspaper scene was designed from the actual patent drawings filed by William Bullock in 1863. The newspaper is a reproduction of the “New York Daily”.

Telegraph Scene: The calendar in the telegraph scene is a copy of a calendar from 1867 by Hatch and Co. Lithographers supplied by the Smithsonian Institution, from the collection of Business Americana.

Telephone Scene: The magneto switchboard was fabricated from an actual model circa 1898, supplied by AT&T.

This is just a quick glimpse into the many layers of authentic detail that the Disney Imagineers painstakingly added to this attraction. There are many more secrets waiting to be shared.

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Thanks, Jim. Come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including The Vault of Walt, Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South?, and The Book of Mouse, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

MORE DISNEY WORLD HISTORY POSTS FROM JIM KORKIS

• “Summer Magic” on Main Street
• Muppets and Mama Melrose
• Peter Dominick and the Wilderness Lodge
• Dixie Landing and Port Orleans Riverside
• The History of Splash Mountain
• The First Disney World Hotel
• The “Sharing the Magic” Statue
• The First Disney World Monorails
• The Water Park River Country
• The Epcot Fountain
• The Fireplace at the Wilderness Lodge
• Sid Cahuenga at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Spaceship Earth
• Downtown Disney
• The Missing Resorts
• Echo Park Homages
• Typhoon Lagoon

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